-The Indian Express Moves to dilute labour-material ratio in MGNREGA and focus exclusively on select backward blocks will adversely impact rural poor. Before the general elections, free-market fundamentalists had lobbied fiercely to reshape so-called wasteful social-sector expenditures. Primary among their targets was the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which, according to them, should become an unconditional cash transfer scheme. Post-elections, the late Gopinath Munde's espousal of the MGNREGA went...

-The Times of India JAIPUR: The paradox could not be greater. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which had its genesis in the mass movements launched in Rajasthan, is now facing a dilution in its home state. The Union rural development ministry is likely to amend the provisions of MGNREGA, converting it to just a scheme and thereby threatening to rob it of its es sence. In Rajasthan, such an...

-The Times of India PATIALA (Punjab): Even as Haryana is going to elections amid political parties' claims about development, a recently published study in a reputed economic journal has revealed that over 80% farmers in the state are reeling under debt. The study also exposed that nearly a same number of farmers are living below poverty line if one goes by the World Bank's definition of "moderate poverty", which means an earning...

-The Tribune Agbiotechnology is presented in many forms - the most common being that it will solve world hunger. To reinforce this claim, there is an interesting word play at work. Agbiotechnology is referred to as the ‘Evergreen Revolution' or the 'Gene Revolution' but never genetic engineering, which is its correct name. Both Evergreen Revolution and Gene Revolution are deliberately coined terms which attempt to link Agbiotech with the Green Revolution....

Documents availed through RTI reveals that the Rural Development minister Shri Nitin Gadkari has ordered to bring drastic changes in the schedule of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which includes changing the labour to material ratio and restricting the implementation of MGNREGA in 1/3rd of backward blocks in India (please click here to access a note on labour-material ratio prepared by People's Action for Employment Guarantee-PAEG). The MoRD has notified the...